Breaking Down Michigan's Spot In Scout 300 List

Over the past few weeks, we have been breaking down the class rankings from the major recruiting services.  We have already done ESPN, Rivals, and 247Sports, so now it's finally time to break down Scout.  I would go into breakdowns of each recruit as we did in our 247Sports post, but it's kind of pointless since we did that post less than a week ago.  If you want to find out more info about each recruit than listed, I suggest either checking out the 247Sports post linked above, or check out our Football Recruiting page.


So let's get into Scout's list of the Top 300 players in the country for the 2013 recruiting class.  As usual, there were a few rankings that made little sense, but there were also some that seemed to fit pretty logically.  Along with this, there were plenty of players that were pretty clearly over or underrated both of Michigan's commits and recruits on other teams or uncommitted.  Regardless, let's just look at the rankings and see how Michigan's commits and targets placed:


COMMITS

• #28 - Shane Morris
• #31 - Patrick Kugler
• #34 - Dymonte Thomas
• #50 - Kyle Bosch
• #54 - DeVeon Smith
• #133 - Chris Fox
• #135 - Henry Poggi
• #153 - Jake Butt
• #154 - Ben Gedeon
• #167 - Jourdan Lewis
• #178 - David Dawson
• #190 - Logan Tuley-Tillman
• #214 - Maurice Hurst, Jr.
• #215 - Michael McCray
• #234 - Gareon Conley
• #265 - Wyatt Shallman
• #294 - Jaron Dukes

TARGETS

• #22 - Kendall Fuller
• #45 - Derrick Green
• #76 - Laquon Treadwell
• #94 - Leon McQuay III
• #296 - Jordan Wilkins

I'll start by looking through the commits first.  The one that really sticks out is DeVeon Smith, who does not appear in the top 150 players on ESPN, Rivals, or 247Sports' lists for the 2013 class.  He is ranked pretty highly in Ohio and I think he deserves some better ratings than he has been receiving on some of the other sites, such as #226 on 247Sports, but to me, #54 is probably a little bit too high.  He also got a 4* ranking according to Scout, which is higher than the 3* he received through Rivals.  ESPN and 247Sports also have him as a 4* so Scout's ranking isn't really that far out of line, just his place in the Top 300 players, at least in my opinion.


One player that I'm happy to see rising up on these rankings is Dymonte Thomas at #34.  There has been a lot of hesitation to rank him much higher because of his inexperience at the position of safety.  There was debate about which position he should play in college and many were concerned about his ability to play solid at the safety position.  247Sports has him pretty close at #51 in their rankings, but both ESPN and Rivals have him much lower at #98 and #95 respectively.  He's an extremely talented player that I think will be getting a lot more love in the rankings as people see him play more at the safety position.


Another thing that I just want to comment on is David Dawson's ranking of #178.  This ranking really isn't that far out of place, ESPN has him at #89, 247Sports has him at #157, and Rivals has him at #171, but this is just upsetting to me.  He has been doing fantastic at pretty much every camp he has attended and is still receiving major attention from all kinds of major programs around the nation, despite being committed to Michigan.  To me, he is without a doubt, massively underrated.  Something is holding these recruiting services back from boosting him up, but I'm not sure what.  At 6'5" and weighing 305 lbs, he certainly has the size.  Whatever it may be that's holding them back, I have little doubt that he will outplay these rankings.


There are two very interesting things about where Michigan's 2013 targets rank on Scout's list of the Top 300 players in the nation.  First, there is a massive separation between Green and Wilkins on Scout's list.  Scout has them 251 rankings apart on their list.  Green is rated as the #7 RB in the nation and Wilkins as the #31 RB in the nation.  While Rivals has them 116 rankings apart, they only have 10 other running backs between them in their position rankings.  ESPN also has them separated by 160 spots, but 14 spots in the RB rankings.  Finally, 247Sports is the closest with Green and Wilkins just 22 rankings apart.  Scout has the biggest divide and given what is almost clearly an over-ranking of Derrick Green by Rivals (#1 RB in the nation), the other services are much closer.  There is probably a decent drop-off from Green to Wilkins, but not as drastic as Scout claims.


The final thing worth noting is the ranking of Leon McQuay.  How is he possibly as low as #94 on Scout's list?  He is rated as #41 or higher on each of the other recruiting services including #33 on Rivals, which is 61 spots higher than Scout.  Whether Michigan gets McQuay or not, I think Scout's ranking is unjustly critical of McQuay.  If you're clearly an elite 4* recruit and choosing between USC and Michigan this late in the recruiting process, you are probably should be a bit higher.


Even though I am probably not alone in questioning some of these rankings, Michigan placed very well with 17 commitments rated in the Top 300 players and a great chance at grabbing at least one more highly ranked recruit in the near future.  If so, it's going to be very difficult to lose Michigan's current #1 class ranking in the nation.